Originally Posted by
georgetg
Done....
I still wish we would be more clear on the issue:
The current NAS operation with 787s, a Norwegian Air carrier certificate and Norwegian pilots flying from Norway to the US is ok.
The proposed NAI scheme with an Irish certificate to gain access to European Open Skies, crews based in Bangkok to avoid Norwegian labor laws and flights from Europe to the US by a Non-European* Norwegian parent company is not.
Cheers
George
*Norway isn't part of the EU and thus not part of the European Open Skies accords.
George,
You are correct (with the substitution of Singapore), but I am not sure the average reader follows the nuances of the shell game. I am sure a graphic illustrating the evasion of the European Air Services Agreement exists somewhere.
There is provision in the European Air Services agreement which states that labor laws are not to be undermined by the European EAS. Yet, in the EU there are 28 different sets of labor law and now the potential to staff under the laws of the city-state of Singapore. When NAI applied, they asked for a Certificate from the US DOT and asked for an Exemption from requirements to have a Certificate. In an interesting wrinkle of law, there is no time limit for the US to rule on the Certificate, but a six month time limit to rule on the requested Exemption. The exemption ruling was made by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, stating because of the large volume of comments from interests ranging from U.S. airlines to regional airports, “which reflects the novel and complex nature of this case” a temporary exemption was not “appropriate or in the public interest.”
So there will be no exemption, but there is pressure on both sides of the Atlantic pushing this new model's Certificate, including a multi billion dollar order from Boeing in the balance.
ALPA has been very successful in framing this as a legacy issue for the involved politicians. Does Obama's administration want to go down in history as the guys who killed the legacy airline industry?